Field of the Invention
One or more embodiments setting forth the ideas described throughout this disclosure pertain to the field of data mining of data including motion capture data. More particularly, but not by way of limitation, one or more aspects of the disclosure enable a portable wireless mobile device motion capture data mining system and method that enables data mining of data from multiple users including motion capture data obtained from portable wireless motion capture elements such as visual markers and sensors, radio frequency identification tags and mobile device computer systems to find patterns associated with motion.
Description of the Related Art
One known technique to teach effective body mechanics utilizes video recording of an athlete and analysis of the recorded video of an athlete. This technique has various limitations including inaccurate and inconsistent subjective analysis based on video for example. Another technique includes motion analysis, for example using at least two cameras to capture three-dimensional points of movement associated with an athlete. Known implementations utilize a stationary multi-camera system that is not portable and thus cannot be utilized outside of the environment where the system is installed, for example during an athletic event such as a golf tournament. These fixed installations are extremely expensive as well. Such prior techniques are summarized in U.S. Pat. No. 7,264,554, filed 26 Jan. 2006, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/647,751 filed 26 Jan. 2005, the specifications of which are both hereby incorporated herein by reference. Both disclosures are to the same inventor of the subject matter of the instant application. Regardless of the motion capture data obtained, the data is generally analyzed on a per user or per swing basis that does not contemplate data mining of large data sets of motion capture data.
Known systems generally utilize several passive or active markers or several sensors. There are no known systems that utilize as little as one visual marker or sensor and a mobile device to analyze and display motion capture data associated with a user and/or piece of equipment. The data is generally analyzed in a laboratory on a per user or per swing basis and is not subjected to data mining.
There are no known systems that allow for a group of mobile devices to share data to form three-dimensional motion capture data by triangulation of visual markers. There are no known systems that allow for a mobile device without a camera to obtain images from cameras or other mobile devices with cameras to display motion capture data. In addition, known systems do not save images of users along with motion capture data for data mining.
There are no known mobile motion captures systems that allow for a user to align a camera correctly along the horizontal before capture of motion data having horizontally aligned images.
There are no known systems that allow for motion capture elements such as wireless sensors to seamlessly integrate or otherwise couple with a golf club, for example in the weight port of a golf club or at the end shaft near the handle so as to provide a wireless golf club, configured to capture motion data. In addition, there are no known systems that allow for motion capture elements such as wireless sensors to seamlessly integrate or couple with shoes, gloves, shirts, pants, belts, or other equipment, or a user, in such a small format that the user is not aware that the sensors are located in these items. Data derived from existing sensors is not saved in a database for a large number of events and is not used for data mining.
In addition, for sports that utilize a piece of equipment and a ball, there are no known portable wireless mobile device motion capture data mining systems that allow the user to obtain immediate visual feedback regarding ball flight distance, swing speed, swing efficiency of the piece of equipment or how centered an impact of the ball is, i.e., where on piece of equipment the collision of the ball has taken place. Known systems do not allow for data mining motion capture data from a large number of swings to suggest or allow the searching for better or optimal equipment to match a user's motion capture data and do not enable original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to make business decisions, e.g., improve their products, compare their products to other manufacturers, up-sell products or contact users that may purchase different or more profitable products.
In addition, there are no known systems that provide portable wireless mobile device motion capture data mining for equipment fitting and subsequent point-of-sale decision making for instantaneous purchasing of equipment that fits an athlete. Furthermore, no known systems allow for custom order fulfillment such as assemble-to-order (ATO) for custom order fulfillment of sporting equipment, for example equipment that is built to customer specifications based on portable wireless mobile device motion capture data mining, and shipped to the customer to complete the point of sales process.
In addition, known systems for counting golf shots are cumbersome and require electronics on each golf club and/or switches that a user is required to operate. In addition, known devices also require active electronics, and therefore batteries in each golf club to operate. There are no known systems that allow a golfer to easily record a shot and location of a shot automatically and/or prompt a user to remember to record each shot for a particular club without a battery and active electronics on the club, for example that is not a practice shot. Known systems do not save the shots per user per course over time in a database and do not contemplate data mining the motion capture data, or shot count and distance data for example to allow for OEMs to purchase access to the database for business decision making for example.
There are no known systems that enable data mining for a large number of users related to their motion or motion of associated equipment to find patterns in the data that allows for business strategies to be determined based on heretofore undiscovered patterns related to motion. There are no known systems that enable obtain payment from OEMs, medical professionals, gaming companies or other end users to allow data mining of motion data. For at least the limitations described above there is a need for a portable wireless mobile device motion capture data mining system and method.